Desperation
by Redwren
Summary: Artemis and Holly are trapped in a virtual world and must play and win a game in order to leave. Will they survive?
1. Prologue

Author's note: Okay, number 1, eternal thanks to Refloc for going over the chapter for me! Number two, I read The Opal Deception and my old story didn't make sense anymore, so I started this one.

Disclaimer (I keep forgetting these): I don't own any of the Artemis Fowl characters.sob Sadly enough, I don't own Holly either. Anyway, Enjoy, R&R!

Artemis came home from school wearily. It was so boring, especially if you knew more than the teachers did.The fact that his mother had sent him to a public school instead of a private one made it seem as though the teachers were even dimmer than usual. Artemis sighed and opened his laptop computer. If the teachers weren't as smart, maybe they could be fooled by one of his phony e-mails.  
Artemis typed up a 'letter' from his father and promptly sent it to the principal of his school.  
Meanwhile, Butler pulled the Fowl Bently into the driveway and got out first to do the usual security check.

After getting the all-clear, Artemis decided not to wait for Butler and just go inside. He walked up to the front door, pushing the electronic keys on the pad. The door unlocked with a click and Artemis stepped inside.  
"Mother, I'm home!" he called out. No answer. That was strange. Artemis started upstairs to investigate.  
"Father, Mother? Is anyone here?" Still no answer, and Artemis was getting irritated at this lack of response.

Artemis climed the stairs to the attic that served as his parent's lounge and knocked at the door. When there was once again no answer, he opened the door and walked inside. He was halfway across when a pair of powerful arms slapped handcuffs on his wrists. One hand clamped onto his mouth to prevent him from calling for help, and Artemis felt the cold steel of a gun against the side of his head.  
"Don't move." said a cold voice.

I should have waited for Butler, thought Artemis. 


	2. Help is on the way!

**Author's note: I put in the part about Foaly in at kinda the last minute. And did I mention that this story takes palce about a year after The Opal Deception?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Eoin Colfer's stuff. R&R!**

Artemis was not happy with the way things had turned out. Why should he be? He had been captured, handcuffed, had duct tape over his mouth,and was sitting in the back of a van with blacked-out windows. Artemis was still unsure of what had happened to Butler, but the manservant could surely take care of himself. Besides, the boy had just discovered that the kidnappers had made a fatal mistake. Instead of binding his hands behind his back, the men had tied his hands in front of him. Artemis was beginning to think that these men didn't know much about their job.  
It was stupid mistake, really.

Artemis ripped the duct tape off his mouth and winced. That hadn't exactly felt good. The next part was trickier. The young genius worked his cuffed hands over to his pocket. He managed to grab the fairy communicator. Now, to call for some help...

**Downtown Haven, Haven City, The Lower Elements.**

Private Detective Holly Short walked to her office after her lunch break. On the way there she had run into Corporal Grub Kelp on Traffic Duty.  
Holly almost felt sorry for him, but her attitude quickly changed when the corporal bagan to taunt her about being kicked out of the LEP, even though he knew full well that she had left on her own. The ex-captain was tempted to teach Grub a good lesson on respect, but the officer's shift had ended before she could try. Holly was secretly glad that she had gone to eat out instead of staying at the office. No doubt Mulch would have made a pig of himself. Nothing new there. The elf hurried through the heavy traffic, very happy that she didn't have an automobile. If she had she would have ended up waiting twice as long in the jam to get back. The private detective agency was run by Holly and Mulch, although they had yet to come up with a name. The 'office' was just an empty storage place on the floor above Holly's apartment. The only part that bothered her was that she was paying the rent, and Mulch was sitting on his hairy backside eating up all of the food in her refrigerator.

Holly went inside, pausing to stop inside her own house to grab a nettle smoothie. For some reason she was very dehydrated today. The detective climed the stairs to the office. She didn't forget to bring the broom so that the dwarf could clean up after himself.  
Holly's fingers had just touched the doorknob when something vibrated inside her pocket.

**Ten minutes later...**

Holly rushed to the terminal. Artemis had told her what had happened and now she had to once again save the Mud Boy. The thing that worried her the most was that it could take days to get an aboveground visa. By then, who knew what could happen to Artemis Fowl?

**Operations booth, Police Plaza, The Lower Elements.**

Foaly paced inside nervously. Perhaps this whole darned experiment will finally come to an end, he thought. This 'experiment' had been going on for almost a year now.  
One of the officers had found several ancient scrolls buried beneath the old Atlantis and had given them to Foaly for translation. It hadn't taken the centuar very long to translate them.Foaly immediatly hid the scroll.The old texts involved cloning and a magic spell to bind a soul to that clone. Foaly had immediatly thought of the Commander, but he hadn't realized that the whole process would be so complicated. But now he seemed to be rewarded for his patience.


	3. Hit

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Artemis Fowl characters.**

**Author's note: Zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh, sorry. If you're wondering why I'm snoozing, it's because I'm so bored waiting for all of you to review! Anyway, R&R!**

**Terminal E1, Waiting line.**

Holly was racing against time to save Artemis. But how could she get a visa? Slowly, she approached the desk. "Excuse me, but I need a visa right now!"she said, noticing that the line was strangely short. It turned out that the gnome was new on the job and was granting everyone visas without a clue that he needed to get them approved.

Twenty minutes later Holly was aboard a shuttle for Ireland.

**Van, somewhere in Ireland.**

Artemis felt the van come to a stop. He heard the men get out of the car, talking excitedly. The van's rear door slid open, revealing a tall man.The man grabbed Artemis by the arm and pulled him roughly out of the vehicle. The boy couldn't help but notice that neither of them was wearing anything to conceal their faces. "Look, Brody, the kid managed to get the tape off his mouth," onesaid. " I hope he's not gettin' cocky, 'cause if he is, we'll take care o' that, eh?" said the tall man, whose name was apparently Brody. The two men escorted the Irish boy to what looked like a small makeshift laboratory. Artemis could't help being impressed in spite of himself when they walked inside. These men had fashioned a lab out of a rental storage compartment.  
The tall one, Brody, sat Artemis on an old folding chair and secured him to it with a rope. "Hey Dan, you got that laser ready yet?" he asked. "Almost," grunted Dan. Laser? thought Artemis with a small twinge of fear. Were they going to shoot him? He saw the laser being pointed at him.  
It was shaped a bit like a gun, and sitting on a revolving base like the ones you might see in movies. However, this was not a movie, and Artemis was by now sure that this would be the end of him.  
"See this?" asked Dan, looking over at Artemis. "The boss said that when we finished this baby, we could try it out on the great Artemis Fowl"  
Artemis was wondering who 'the boss' was when he realized that they thought he was his father. They wanted Artemis Sr., but had captured instead Artemis Jr.

**E1 Arrivals Terminal.**

Holly had made it to the surface, but by now someone must have figured that the gnome at the terminal had been giving out false passports.  
It was only a matter of time until the LEP went searching for the illegal visas. And Holly Short just didn't have time. She rushed out of the terminal,using her locator to scan for Artemis's communicator. The locator was a present from Foaly. The scan revealed that Artemis was at some kind of storage facility. Amazingly, Holly would not have a problem getting there. The place was hardly two klicks away.

**Debreifing room, Police Plaza, Haven City.**

"Major Kelp?"

"Yes, sir?" the major answered "There's been some kind of illegal passports problem. I need you to investigate." said Commander Sool.

"I'm supposed to round up the people with the passports, right?" asked Trouble.

"You got it, Major."

Fifteen minutes later Major Kelp and Retrieval were tracking down the visas. There was only one person left. Trouble checked the computor on his wrist. The last visa belonged to Holly Short.

"That just figures," he muttered.

He opened the throttle on his wings and prepared to track her down.

**Storage unit.**

Holly peeked inside the storage. She could see three people. One she recognized as Artemis, and the other two were probably his kidnappers.  
But the two men didn't worry her. The laser pointed at Artemis did. Holly crept inside, taking cover behind large boxes stacked against the wall.One of the men aimed the laser, and fired it. "No!" Holly shrieked. She ran to push the boy out of the way. But it was too late.

The laser hit them both.

Trouble Kelp landed on the roof of the storage shed. Holly would be inside, no doubt. It made sense that she would be hiding out here, because she was allowed to enter this paricular place. The court had recently declared that if no one lived in a dwelling, then the faires should be able to enter without incident. This place certainly fit the bill.

Trouble dropped to a window. He was just in time to see the laser hit Holly and Artemis.


	4. Back from the dead

**Author's note: You may want to go back and read the part about Foaly in my first chapter.**

**Police Plaza, Haven City.**

Foaly was pacing again. He hoped it would work. It had to! It was the only option, so far as he knew.The only way to bring back Commander Julius Root. But Foaly didn't even know if it would work.

Those scrolls he had translated might have been wrong. Those fragile pieces of parchment described a technique that allowed a person to come back from the dead by creating a clone, then casting a spell to bind the person's soul to his or her clone.

The warlock had already performed the spell, but that had been over six hours ago, and Foaly still had doubts. What if it didn't work? he thought once more. And if it did, what if they accidentally bound the wrong soul to the body? The commander's clone's body. Oh, it just had to work!

Foaly sat down tiredly in his chair. The scrolls said it might take a whole day before anything happens, he reminded himself. I can wait a few more hours if I have to.

**A few hours later….**

Foaly was nearly asleep in his chair, despite all of his effort to stay alert, as well as all that coffee he'd had. Nothing had happened, and Foaly was getting impatient. Then he heard a stirring in the box that held Julius's body. The box had been specially made to keep any body safe from things such as viruses. Foaly listened hard. There it was again!

He rapped on the box's lid. "Anybody home?" he asked. There came a slight moan from inside.

Foaly knocked again, harder this time. "Hey, Julius? You in there?" There was a pause. "Foaly, you infernal centaur! What in Frond's name is going on here?"

Foaly grinned. Julius was back.


	5. Computer games

Holly opened her eyes and sat up. The world spun like a top. "Ohhhh," she moaned, holding her head in her hands. The dizziness passed, and Holly looked around. Artemis was already awake.

"So where are we?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"What? The great Artemis Fowl doesn't know?"

"Just give me a few more minutes!" Artemis snapped.

As Artemis continued to think, Holly got to her feet. She wanted to do some exploring. It looked like they were in a house. Not a human one, though. Holly figured that they must be in some kind of fairy dwelling. She was bending over, inspecting a cabinet when a voice spoke up behind her. "Captain Short, long time no see. How are you?" Holly straitened hurriedly and ended up thwacking her head on the edge of the cabinet. She cursed loudly, then turned to see…

"Briar Cudgeon?"

"How wonderful, you remember me. Oh, stop looking so surprised, Captain."

"That's private detective to you," Holly hissed.

By this time Artemis had walked over to see what was causing all the commotion.

Cudgeon turned. "Ah, Artemis, just the person I wanted to see. Although I was expecting the other one."

"What other one?" cut in Holly.

"My father," explained Artemis. "His name is Artemis too."

"Great," Holly moaned.

Artemis turned back to Briar Cudgeon. "So what did you want with my father?"

"Well," the elf said slowly, "I was going to capture your father, set him as bait for a trap, and so on and so forth. But those two goons, Daniel and Brody, caught the wrong Artemis." Here he paused to grin. "But so long as you are here, I may as well torment you anyway, along with the added bonus that _Detective _Short is here to suffer with you."

"I'm shaking in my shoes," said Artemis with the usual sarcasm. Cudgeon had the grace to ignore him.

"Just a minute." said Holly thoughtfully. "Unless I'm dreaming or something, you should be dead, Briar."

He grinned again. "Of course. I forgot to explain. But where should I start?"

"How about from the beginning?" said Holly.

"If you say so. Opal Koboi told me a little trick. If one of us were to die during or after the goblin siege, the other would transfer the person's mind into the computer. Then we would be suspended in a virtual world until our bodies could be restored."

"So what you're saying is that we are inside a computer program right now?" asked Artemis.

"That is exactly right, Mud Boy. I am a virtual projection. I had more _mesmerized _helpers than Luc Carrere, and I made Dan and Brody transfer my mind to the computer. I can manipulate this program to be anything I want it to be."

"Then what are you going to do with us?" asked Holly impatiently.

Briar thought for a moment. "I have an idea. Why don't we play a little game? Like those computer games Mud Men play. Yes, I think we'll do it that way. How about this: you must get through a few levels and must find something in order to move on!" he said with bravado. Artemis yawned. Holly stared blankly.

"You two are such killjoys. I suppose I ought to raise the stakes and make it all more interesting. You see this?" he asked, drawing a small silver key out of his pocket. "You have to find one key in every level of this game. I will give you five levels. As soon as you find this key, you must find the door. Go through this door, and advance to the next level. If you win all of the levels, then I must set you free. If you fail a level, you will die. Period. No more chances. Good luck!" he said cheerfully. He waved his hand, and Holly and Artemis were swept up in what seemed like a tornado. The room evaporated, and so did Cudgeon. Seconds later they were slammed down on their backs.

"Welcome to level one." said a mechanical voice.


	6. Just Disappeared?

**Author's Note: I'm so sorry that I haven't updated! But first I must clear up some things for my reviewers. **

**Smilehead--- If you had paid closer attention, you would know that it was Dan and Brody, the two Mud Men that Cudgeon **_mesmerized _**before he died, who put him into the computer.**

**bibliophile---This story takes place about a year or two after the Opal Deception. Foaly had plenty of time to make a clone, and this story describes the very end of his project.**

**Eva Evans---Major Kelp can too go on a mission. After all he was the one who showed up at the tunnel and he was the one piloting the supersonic attack shuttle.**

**Agivega---Foaly mentions in this chapter how he got the Commander's DNA. I didn't leave it out. Anyhow, read and review!**

**Police Plaza**

The commander was having a cup of coffee and trying to adjust to being alive again, as well as being informed on the end of the Opal case. However, Foaly had conveniently left off the last part. The part about Holly.

"It's a good thing the LEP require DNA donations before an officer joins," remarked Foaly.

"I remember the time I gave the donation." said Root.

"So do I," Foaly snickered. "You were swearing the whole time."

The commander glared at him. "Well, er, anyway, now that everyone thinks you're dead, you can't exactly have your job back. I'm sorry, Julius, but from now on you'll have to be a civilian. I may have to change your name, too."

"I have to ask, but Foaly, why did you bring me back?"

"Because life is extremely boring without you."

"Be serious."

"Well….someone was feeling extremely guilty about your death."

"Who?"

"Holly."

"Holly!" exclaimed the commander. "Why?"

"Because the LEP thought she murdered you."

Julius could only stare. He didn't know what to say. Holly had been his most trusted officer, and they had blamed her?

"Where is she now?" he asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Uh, well, she kind of quit after that whole incident. She's a private detective now."

"SHE QUIT!"

Foaly was about to answer when the communications button blipped.

"Sorry, Julius, I'll have to get into details later."

He pushed the talk button. "Uh, yeah?"

**Storage facility**

Back at the storage place, Trouble Kelp was still wondering both where the humans had run off to, and why Holly and Artemis had disappeared. He decided that Foaly would probably do a better job on clearing both things up. He phoned Police Plaza.

Foaly answered. "Uh, yeah?"

"Hey, Foaly, I have a big problem. It's a long story, so I'll have to explain later. Right now I need you to find some people for me."

"Explain first, ask later." said Foaly.

"Then I'll have to come over there."

"Well, come on, then!"

**Police Plaza, a little later…**

"So they disappeared, just like that?" Foaly asked.

"Just like that." Trouble replied.

Trouble had just finished explaining the whole scenario. Foaly had hidden away Root before the major had arrived.

Foaly got up. "I can run a search for the two Mud Men, no problem. But Holly and Artemis will be a lot harder to find. For all I know, they just disappeared off the face of the Earth."


	7. Village

**Author's note: I'm so so so so sorry that I haven't updated! I slammed into a particularly thick writer's block. Luckily I found the sledgehammer called inspiration so I could break through it. **

**I wonder if any of you people could guess what time period Holly and Artemis are in. I'll give you some clues: No, they aren't just in the medieval times. And if you read the books, you would find that they mention this point in time quite a lot. **

Holly and Artemis were slammed down on their backs. Holly had a headache for the second time in so many minutes. She stood up and nudged Artemis, who was still lying on his back, with her foot. "Get up," she grunted. However, she noticed three things right then: one, Artemis was the same height as she was, two, he had pointed ears, and three, he was dressed in medieval-style clothes.

"I think Cudgeon turned you into an elf. And you're wearing funny clothes." said Holly. "Well, you're not exactly a fashion statement yourself," he retorted. Holly looked down. She was wearing a dress, old fashioned, like Artemis's clothes. A dress. Oh, no, she thought. Why did it have to be a dress?

At least it was her color, which was green. She looked back over at Artemis. He was sitting up now and looking around, and probably wondering where they were. And speaking of the scenery, they seemed to be in the middle of a forest. A very thick forest. "Look," said Holly, pointing. "There's a path." And indeed there was, but it was narrow and hard to see, covered as it was with plants.

They had been walking for quite awhile before they saw anybody else. When they did it seemed like there was a whole village of people. Artemis and Holly passed huts, houses, shops, a monastery, and even a circus. But they were elves, and these people were human. Holly wondered why they didn't pay attention to the two creatures in the street.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" asked Holly.

"I have an idea, but I'm not sure." answered Artemis.

They walked farther, away from the village. Soon it was out of sight, but that didn't mean there was nothing left to see. Artemis spotted some mounds of dirt and rocks in the distance.

"What are those?" he asked Holly. "Graves?"

Holly squinted at the mounds, trying to get a better look. "No," she said slowly. "I think those are fairy forts."


End file.
